The very first column I filed in 2014 exposed the plight of a beautiful young girl, the same age as my daughter, whom medical experts declared “brain dead” after a routine tonsillectomy gone wrong. Are you ready for the rest of the story?

Doctors told Jahi’s mom, Nailah Winkfield, that her child’s organs would “shut down” and her brain would “liquefy” if kept on life support. Hostile hospital administrators in Oakland moved to pull the plug on Jahi. Medical officials callously referred to Jahi as “dead, dead, dead” and dismissed the child as a “body.” Smug critics mocked and hounded the family to give up and let go. Jahi’s life, they concluded, was worthless.

“I was told previously that it would be liquefied or have holes in it because it had been without blood flow and oxygen for 9 months,” she recounted. “That is not the case with my daughter. Every person is different and every person heals differently.”

One year after callous and overconfident members of the medical and media establishments wrote Jahi’s life off, the now 14-year-old girl is surrounded by the love and care of her mom, dedicated medical professionals, and vigilant advocates for life.

Bobby Schindler, head of Terri’s Network, told me this week that Jahi’s family “has been blessed with countless numbers of well-wishers, letting the family know they are constantly praying for Jahi.” The detractors and haters are still out there. But as Schindler observes, “Unfortunately, this is nothing new – my family experienced the same with [sister] Terri. In fact, it’s been almost ten years since Terri’s death, and we continue to receive similar types of mean-spirited comments.”

Thankfully for society’s most vulnerable members who are medically dependent, disabled, incapacitated, or potentially facing life-threatening situations, Bobby Schindler and Nailah Winkfield are keeping the faith.

“Jahi’s life is worth the fight,” her mom insists. And that noble fight deserves far more support from those who’ve been sloganeering recently about how Lives Matter.

“The Bible tells us of Mary’s great joy at Christ’s conception and birth,” Schindler reflects. “It also tells us of her great sadness at his unnatural suffering and death. This Christmas let us pray that God’s will be done in 2015 for all his children – those in the womb and those judged not worthy of end of life care and protection.”